The Altered Ole Miss Academic Calendar Could Effect the Sports Calendar
Back in May, we wrote about a potential Ole Miss academic calendar shift and how that move could impact an athletics calendar.
Now, with the University announcing on Wednesday that they'd be truncating the fall academic calendar, that could become a reality.
The University of Mississippi will be starting classes as scheduled on Aug. 24, but the semester will end before Thanksgiving with final exams going through Nov. 24. The goal, of course, is to prevent the spread of COVID-19 through Thanksgiving travel.
“As part of the ongoing planning for the upcoming 2020 semester, the university is issuing a modified fall 2020 academic calendar as part of our efforts to protect the health and safety of the campus community,” the University's statement read. “The modified calendar reflects the university’s efforts to mitigate the potential impact of COVID-19 during the late fall months."
South Carolina was the first Power-5 school to make such an announcement, doing so back in May. In theory, the decision to prevent students from traveling home and then back to campus makes sense.
The question from a sports angle is how could this effect bowl season and the start of the college basketball calendar?
If Ole Miss makes a bowl game and students are not allowed to be in dorms past Thanksgiving, will that impact how they can live on campus for extra weeks of practice in December? If there's another wave of COVID-19 cases, will it prevent fans or family or even players from signing up for a theoretical trip to say the Autozone Liberty Bowl?
Basketball actually faces bigger hurdles.
“We’re trying to think responsibly and creatively about how to best have the college basketball season play out for student-athletes, teams and fans,” said the NCAA vice president for men’s basketball, Dan Gavitt, to Sports Illustrated in May. “We’re trying to be very creative and nimble, but it’s still early in the process."
As of right now, the Rebels open their season on Nov. 10. They'll play three games before that Thanksgiving break. For now, they are slated to play seven games from Dec. 1 to Jan. 2, all while classes will not be ongoing.
As Sports Illustrated's Pat Forde writes, the less time the entire student body spends on campus at American universities, the more it calls into question why the athletes should be there. More interestingly, via. Gavitt, the NCAA is actually looking into a creative change.
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